| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Walden by Henry David Thoreau: an anticipation of the vegetable leaf. No wonder that the earth
expresses itself outwardly in leaves, it so labors with the idea
inwardly. The atoms have already learned this law, and are pregnant
by it. The overhanging leaf sees here its prototype. Internally,
whether in the globe or animal body, it is a moist thick lobe, a
word especially applicable to the liver and lungs and the leaves of
fat (jnai, labor, lapsus, to flow or slip downward, a lapsing;
jiais, globus, lobe, globe; also lap, flap, and many other words);
externally a dry thin leaf, even as the f and v are a pressed and
dried b. The radicals of lobe are lb, the soft mass of the b
(single lobed, or B, double lobed), with the liquid l behind it
Walden |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Youth by Joseph Conrad: dered the wheel, and apart, elbow on rail and chin in
hand, gazed at the sea wistfully. We asked ourselves,
What next? I thought, Now, this is something like.
This is great. I wonder what will happen. O youth!
"Suddenly Mahon sighted a steamer far astern. Cap-
tain Beard said, 'We may do something with her yet.'
We hoisted two flags, which said in the international
language of the sea, 'On fire. Want immediate assis-
tance.' The steamer grew bigger rapidly, and by-and-
by spoke with two flags on her foremast, 'I am coming
to your assistance.'
Youth |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: are wisest. They are the magi.
End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.
The Gift of the Magi |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: likely to do to the future Comte de Gondreville? Did they mean to
force him to make over the estate for which Michu declared in 1799 he
had the money to pay?
But there was another aspect of the cast to the knowing criminal
lawyer. He asked himself what could be the object of the careful
search made of the chateau. If revenge were at the bottom of the
matter, the assailants would have killed the senator. Perhaps he had
been killed and buried. The abduction, however, seemed to point to
imprisonment. But why keep their victim imprisoned after searching the
castle? It was folly to suppose that the abduction of a dignitary of
the Empire could long remain secret. The publicity of the matter would
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